341 
J P5 
L9 
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June, 1919 Number 166 

THE UNIVERSITY OF 

NORTH CAROLINA 

RECORD 




Extension series no. 32 



A STUDY OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

IN ORANGE COUNTY 

NORTH CAROLINA 



PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY 

Entered as Second-class Matter at the Postoffice at 

CHAPEL HILL. N. 0. 



t^.-a/>o^r?.p-j , 



The 


University of North Carolina 


Maximum Service to the People of the State 


A. 


THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS. 


B. 


THE SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 




(1) Cheaiical Engineering. 




(2) Electrical Engineering. 




(3) CItII and Road Engineering. 




(4) Soil Inyestigation. 


c. 


THE GRADUATE SCHOOL. 


D. 


THE SCHOOL OF LAW. 


E. 


THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. 


r. 


THE SCHOOL OF PHARMACY. 


G. 


THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION. 


H. 


THE SUMMER SCHOOL. 


I. 


THE BUREAU OF EXTENSION. 




(1) General Information. 




(2) Instruction by Lectures. 




(3) Home Study Courses. 




(4) Debate and Declamation. 




(5) County Economic and Social Surveys. 




(6) Municipal Reference. 




(7) Educational Information and Assistance. 




(8) Information Concerning Reconstruction 


W 


and Citizensliip. 


BITE TO THE UNIYERSITY WHEN YOU 


For Info 


NEED HELP. 


rmatlon Regarding the Uniyersity, Address 




THOMAS J. WILSON, Jr., Registrar. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF 

NORTH CAROLINA 

RECORD 



JUNE, 1919 
NUMBER 166 




A STUDY OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN ORANGE COUNTY 
NORTH CAROLINA 



Faculty Committee on Extension 



Louis R. Wilson 
H. W. Chase 
N. W. Walker 
M. C. S. Noble 



L. A. Williams 
J. H. Hanford 
Collier Cobb 
E. R. Rankin 



C. L. Raper 
E. C. Branson 
A. H. Patterson 
Edwin Greenlaw 



RALEIGH 

Edwards & Broughton Printing Co. 

1919 



ud? 



The Bureau of Extension of the University 
of North CaroHna 



The University of North Carolina through its Bureau of Extension 
offers to the people of the State: 

I. General Information: 

Concerning books, readings, essays, study outlines, and subjects 
of general interest. Literature will be loaned from the Li- 
brary upon the payment of transportation charges each way. 
II. Instruction by Lectures: 

Lectures of a popular or a technical nature and addresses for 
commencement or other special occasions will be furnished 
any community which will pay the traveling expenses of the 
lecturer. 
III. Home Study Courses. 

For teachers in Algebra, Arithmetic, Civics, Drawing, Eco- 
nomics, Education, Engineering, English, European History, 
French, Geology, German, Greek, Latin, North Carolina His- 
tory, Rural Economics, Solid Geometry, and United States 
History. 

IV. Guidance in Debate and Declamation: 

Through the High School Debating Union, special bulletins and 
handbooks, and material loaned from the Library. 
V. County Economic and Social, Surveys: 

For use by counties in their effort to improve their economic 
and social condition. 
VI. Municipal Reference Aids: 

For use in studying and drafting municipal legislation and 
assistance in municipal government. 
VII. Educational Information and Assistance: 

For teachers, principals, superintendents, school committees and 
boards. The School of Education acts as a clearing house for 
information concerning all phases of educational work and 
conducts a teacher's bureau as an aid to communities and 
schools in securing efficient teachers. 
VIII. Information Concerning the War and After: 

Making clear the aims, purposes, and ideals of America in the 
new era of peace. 
For full information, address 

THE BUREAU OF EXTENSION, 

Chapel Hill, N. C. 



0. of D. 
OCT 14 1919 



FOREWORD 

At tlie request of tlie Board of Education of Orange County 
the School of Education at the University undertook the task of 
making a study of the county schools. The Professor of School 
Administration was placed in charge of the work. 

Conditions in the public schools during the current year have 
not been normal owing to the influenza epidemic and to war con- 
ditions. It was the original plan to visit each separate school in 
the county and study the county educational plant while in actual 
operation. This has been impossible although more than 60 per 
cent of the schools have been thus visited. 

In the labor of securing the facts about the schools valuable 
assistance has been rendered by the following students in educa- 
tion : Messrs. J. A. Capps, E. L. Daughtry, R. E. Moseley, and 
J. R. Weaver, as well as by Mr. F. W. Morrison, Superintendent 
of the Chapel Hill School.' 

It is the purpose of this study to treat the public school interests 
of Orange County as a business enterprise, for in reality the most 
important business in which this or any other county can be 
engaged is that of training the citizens of the next generation. 
The ideals with which the boys and girls of these present days are 
imbued and the training they now receive in realizing these ideals 
are the working capital with which wealth and prosperity in 
Orange County will be made possible in the next twenty-five years. 
To spend money now in educating our boys and girls is to make 
an investment sure to yield highly satisfactory dividends in the 
years to come and the economic law Avill here hold good to the 
effect that the larger the investment the greater the total return. 
If we do not invest heavily we need not expect any considerable 
income. 

The significance of this study, so far as rural education in J^orth 
Carolina is concerned lies in the fact that Orange County is a 
truly typical rural county. During the past four years Orange 
County has been ranked in nearly three hundred particulars of 
an economic and social nature and in nearly every case the county 



4 FOKEWOED 

holds practically tlie middle position. Sucli a situation sliows 
rather clearly that conditions which obtain in Orange are, in all 
prohability, conditions typical of rural schools throughout the 
State, Other counties will differ in details and in different fea- 
tures but in the main what is true of schools in Orange as revealed 
in this study is equally tnie of rural education in JSTorth Carolina. 

L. A. Williams, Pd.D., 
Professor of School Administration. 



A Study of the Public Schools in Orange 
County, North Carolina 



THE STOCKHOLDERS 

There are 2,987 families in Orange County. These constitute, 
therefore, the stockholders in the business of public education. 
Of this number 67 per cent are native white of native parents and 
33 per cent are negroes. Taking as a basis the entire population 
of the county 20 years of age and over the 1910 census found 13 
per cent to be sheer illiterates; the per cent of near illiterates is 
therefore much greater. There are no large towns in the county 
as is shown by the fact that the census classifies the entire popu- 
lation as rural. In consequence these stockholders are nearly all 
engaged in the agricultural and allied industries. 

That these stockholders are prosperous is attested by the fact 
that the total value of the farm property in the eounty is placed 
at more than $3,000,000 and by the further fact that they annually 
produce more than $2,000,000 worth of farm products, 63 per 
cent of them operating fai*ms which they own free and clear of 
mortgage debt. 

In 1917 the total taxable wealth of the county was $7,500,000. 
In 1918 these stockholders had $24 per inhabitant to their credit 
in the banks, a total savings account of nearly $400,000. The 
real wealth of the people in Orange, however, was best revealed 
during the thrift campaigns of the war when in eighteen months 
the citizens of the county took more than $2,500,000 of Liberty 
Bonds, Thrift Stamps, and the like, an average of $83 for every 
mian, woman, and child, black and white in the county. This 
is all wealth over and above living expenses; it is money out at 
interest, "growing without care." 

These are the main characteristics of those whose chief con- 
cern is the success of the Orange County public schools in pro- 
ducing a first-class, high-grade finished product. This is the con- 
dition of the investors, the holders of the stock, the providers of 
the sinews of our public school business in this county. 




J-./.,,ii^/ 



Univebsity of !P^orth Cakolina 7 

THE DIRECTORS 

In charge of this business, determining the policies as to public 
education in the county, providing ways and means for the sup- 
port and extension of its activities, is a board of directors of three 
members, politically chosen by the State Legislature to serve for 
a term of six years, the terms being so arranged that there is a 
possibility of one new member being appointed every two years. 
In point of fact the board of directors for Orange remains fairly 
constant, sufficiently so to allow the development and execution of 
a reasonably extensive school policy. Two memibers of the board 
are successful farmers, the third is a lawyer and the mayor of 
one of the two towns in the county. Orange County is most for- 
tunate in the personnel of its present board of educational direc- 
tors. Every memher has at heart only one consideration, viz., 
the best welfare of the county's educational interests. They are 
constructive in their thinking about the schools, right-minded as 
to the place and importance of public schools, limited in the scope 
of their policy of upbuilding by the available and possible funds 
for school support voted them by the people and the other county 
officials. 

There is in the county a set of officials connected with the 
schools which it is difficult to classify or justify. They are, per- 
haps, subdirectors, or agents of the directors, or district managers. 
We refer to the local school trustees. Orange County has, actually, 
more local school trustees than it has teachers, counting all teach- 
ers, white and colored. In terms of the business world, therefore, 
there are more district managers than there are workers, a total 
of 150 managers and less than 130 workers. Just what their 
function is which could not be as well or better exercised by the 
general manager and board of directors is not clear. The super- 
intendent is — or should be — held responsible for the quality of 
work done by the teachers and he should therefore be the one from 
whom should come recommendations as to who should or should 
not be selected to teach. The county board of education is di- 
rectly interested in seeing that schools and districts receive value 
for the money expended for schools and should have the final voice 
in teacher selection. So far as could be learned, this choosing of 



8 Study of Public Schools in Orange County 

the teachers is the function most commonly exercised by these 
trustees and this can be as well performed by the county school 
officials. It is true that in some cases testimony was given to 
show that these trustees replace a window glass, repair a sagging 
door, or keep alive conxmunity interest in schools. That they gen- 
erally exercise any lively or vigorous interest in the school work, 
the equipment, grounds, sanitary arrangements, etc., was not 
clearly evident. So far as it was possible to ascertain facts about 
these officials, it appears that they too often constitute a super- 
numerary body. It is fortunate that they serve without pay and 
therefore consume none of the county school funds. 

This condition is an inheritance from the old district form of 
organization and under such an organization of public school 
activities such officials served a very real and useful purpose. 
The district system has, however, been proven wasteful, cumber- 
some, ineffective, unnecessary, and has, in principle, been aban- 
doned ; it is high time that the outworn and out-of-date machinery 
be also discarded. So long as such machinery is useful and nec- 
essary it should be retained; otherwise it is a potential, if not a 
real, source of danger. 

THE GENERAL MANAGER 

x\s the chief executive of this board of directors there is the 
County Superintendent of Public Instruction, chosen by the board 
of directors. The legal qualifications of this officer include a 
minimum amount of education and actual teaching experience. 
No special preparation for the particular -task is demanded other 
than that acquired during the experience period. This officer is 
chosen for a period of two years to serve the will of the board. 
Legally his duties are largely clerical and in the :pature of a 
reporter to the State Board of Education on the one hand and to 
the county board on the other. While invested with supervisory 
duties they are more nominal than real. 

The present County Superintendent or General Manager for 
the school business of Orange County meets all the legal qualifi- 
cations, is faithful and exact in the carrying on of his official 
duties. He works in close harmony with the board and executes 



University of I^orth Carolina 9 

its policies with discretion and exactness. He has not yet 
initiated any very extensive or large policies due, perhaps, to the 
war conditions and to the shoi't time he has been in service. He 
does not get the opportunity to give proper supervision to the 
teaching done in the schools. The most he can supervise are the 
general matters of teacher appointments, teacher training (Read- 
ing Circle), the physical equipment for schools, and the furnish- 
ing of supplies. With fifty white schools and twenty-eight colored 
schools scattered over a county like Orange with its roads almost 
impassable during certain months, and with more than half the 
schoolhouses located from a hundred feet to a half-mile from a 
traveled road, it is a physical impossibility for the general man- 
ager to visit his eighty factories more than once a year, and then 
only long enough to get a general view of external conditions. 

All this is said in justice to the general mianager, for when the 
figures dealing with the working force and the raw material are 
presented the facts will seem to censure the work of the general 
manager. While he might be willing, and no doubt would be, to 
shoulder all the blame, it is not wholly, perhaps not even largely, 
his fault as a manager that certain conditions as respects these 
two factors are as they are. 

At present the general manager of the Orange County school 
business is handicapped in working out with his board of directors 
a constructive and far-reaching policy by insufii'cient funds, insuf- 
ficient supervisory force, a multitude of clerical duties, poor county 
roads, improper location of factories (schoolhouses), small units 
of organization, an uneven and irregular supply of raw material 
(pupils), and an insufficient amount as well as a poor quality of 
machinery (teaching apparatus). Therefore, before any just esti- 
mate of the work of the general manager can be made the directors 
and stockholders must do their best to remedy these unsatisfactory 

working conditions. 

THE FOREMEN 

One of the weakest, perhaps the very Aveakest point in the 
organization is in the matter of foremen (principals). By the 
most liberal interpretation possible one cannot reasonably clas- 
sify over a half dozen of the schools as having an adequately 




*'*•* *•#!• ^cf^r 



mm 



SUNNYSIDE 




■f" 




COUNTY TRAINING SCHOOL, CARRBORO 




CEDAR GROVE 



SOME OF THE NEGRO SCHOOLS 



University of I*^okth Carolina 11 

trained and experienced principal. In by far tlie great majority 
of cases the only apparent utility of the designation "principal" 
is to make it possible for the teacher thus designated to secure a 
larger salary. Little or no other meaning or significance seems 
to be attached to the term. With a proper system put into force 
it should be possible for the general manager to delegate a large 
part of his supervisory duties to these principals or foremen. It 
would be their duty to inspect, criticize, improve the quality of 
workmanship (teaching) ; to attend to the securing and routing 
of the raw material (pupils) ; to keep in touch with the needs and 
conditions in each factory and report concerning all these matters 
to the general manager at regular, stated intervals. 

Of course, in order to have such work satisfactorily done and 
in order for the general mianager to be able to rely on these fore- 
men they must be trained by study and by experience to perform 
such duties. Such teachers are scarce, it is true, but by careful 
selection, consistent training, and actuated by a definite policy of 
growing up a group of efficient principals a few years of effort 
along this line should produce very satisfactory results. The for&- 
men can and should be recruited from the best of the workmen 
and it is a short-sighted policy not to keep such a" purpose in 
mind to the end that these good workmen may be (mcouraged to 
prepare and fit themselves for the larger responsibility. 

WORKERS 

The workers in this business are the teachers. There are in 
Orange 123 teachers, 95 white and 28 colored. They are distrib- 
uted among the schools as follows : 

White Colored 

In 1-teacher schools 21 18 

In 2-teacher schools 44 4 

In 3-teacher schools 6 6 

In 4-teacher schools 8 

In schools with 5 or more teachers 16 

Total 95 28 

So far as the training of these workmen for their job is con- 
cerned, one-eighth of them have attended only the grammar school ; 
one-half of them have been no further than high school ; one-sixth 



12 Study of Public Schools in Orange County 

of them have been to a norinal school; and the remainder, one- 
fourth, have attended college. This is the record for the white 
teachers. Of the colored teachers, one-fifth attended grammar 
school as the highest institution they went to; two-thirds of them 
have been to college ; the remainder have had high school or normal 
school training. /On the whole so far as scholastic training is 
concerned the colored teachers are better prepared for their job 
than are the white teachers for theirs, using this record as a basis 
of judgment, ' , 

Of fifty-two white teachers whose teaching record was secured, 
twelve were teaching this year for the first time; eight had taught 
for two years ; thirty-two had taught three years or more ; of this 
last group eleven had taught ten years or over, one having taught 
for twenty-seven years. Of twenty-two colored teachers whose 
record was secured, seven were teaching this year for the first 
time; one had taught two years; fourteen had taught for three 
years or longer; of this last group one had taught for forty years! 
In point of experience the teachers of Orange County are well 
fortified. The workmen have acquired the skill they have by 
many and oft-repeated performances of the task — perhaps to the 
extent that the task has become irksome and monotonous. 

About one^half of the workmen have their homes in the county ; 
this is equally true of both the white and the colored teachers. 
Orange has to go outside its bounds for one out of every two of the 
teachers in its schools. The question arises as to whether or not 
the county would not do better to try to train some of its own sons 
and daughters to do its work ? Some teachers ought to be brought 
in from other counties to prevent "pedagogical in-breeding," but 
50 per cent is a large proportion — provided the quality of home 
talent is as high as the imported product. Orange tnust not take 
workers from within heri own bounds who are less skilled, less effi- 
cient than those she may secure in the open market, but she might 
well look to it to see if it is not possible to train more of her work- 
ers in public education within her own schools. She has the facil- 
ities, for she has high schools and the State University with a 
School of Education within her borders. The facilities are at 
hand. What disposition will she make of her opportunity? 



University of N'orth Carolina 13 

In spite of this good showing as to experience and a fair record 
as to scholarly training the visitations to forty-six of the schools 
showed that in the main the quality of teaching done in the schools 
is poor. Teachers were fomial, hookish, listless, vagiie, careless, 
easy-going, confined to the textbooks in their teaching. In point 
of fact a great number of these workers were merely going through 
the motion of teaching. It takes but a very few minutes for any 
visitor to catch the spirit of the school and in by far too many of 
the cases the classes were lacking in any spirit other than that of 
being exceedingly bored. To be sure there were several teachers 
who were doing a first-class piece of work, handling their task 
with skill, ease, interest, and vigor. These were, however, the 
exception and not the rale. 

One teacher incorrectly pronounced two words out of ten in a 
spelling lesson; another could not pronounce a word at all for the 
class but told them it was there in the book and they could see for 
themselves how it looked; another spent ten minutes reading a 
geography lesson to the class — who had their books open — which 
they were supposed to have studied for that day's recitation. But 
such cases, concrete illustrations though they are, can give no idea 
of the lifeless, dead, uninteresting, monotonous character of the 
classroom work in case after case. ISTo business firm could tolerate 
for a day such easy-going, happy-go-lucky, lackadaisical workman- 
ship as was seen in many of the schools. This is recognized as a 
severe indictment but it is a true bill and the directors and stock- 
holders should have the facts, however disconcerting these facts 
may be, for the stockholders pay the bills and the directors are 
responsible for securing value received. 

At the same time it must not be forgotten that there is another 
angle from which to view this problem, the angle of wages paid 
the workers. The facts in regard to salaries are made up from 
the data secured while visiting some forty-six of the schools in 
every section of the county. They represent conditions applying 
to sixty white teachers and twenty-two colored. Complete figures 
might have been secured from the county offices but this was not 
deemed necessary to set forth the condition in respect to this par- 
ticular matter. 









THESE OR NONE 



University of JSTorth Carolina 15 

White Teaciieus 

Lowest salary paid $ 35 . 00 per mo. 

Highest salary paid 117 . 50 per mo. 

Median salary 50.00 per mo. 

Most common length of term 4 mo. 3 weeks 

Median yearly salary 350.00 

Average cost of board 85.50 

Total income for school work 265.50 

Board for 7 months, 1 week 130.50 

Amount left for clothes, church, books, life 

insurance, doctor's bills, etc 135.00 

Monthly allowance for these purposes 11.25 

After all, perhaps the stockholders and directors of this business 
are getting every hit they pay for when they pay their workers 
less than a dollar a day on the average. No one can expect to 
get any conmion labor, to say nothing of expert workmanship, at 
any such price. As a matter of fact seventeen of the sixty white 
teachers receive less than $45 per month or less than $200 per 
year. Such a sum constitutes "wages" ; it cannot be dignified by 
any such term as "salary." 

Colored Teachers 

Lowest salary paid $ 25 . 00 per mo. 

Highest salary paid 100 . 00 per mo. 

Median salary 35 . 00 per mo. 

Most common length of term 4 mo. 3 weeks 

Median yearly salary 166.25 

Average cost of board 52.25 

Total income for school work 114.00 

Board for 7 months, 1 week 79.75 

Amount left for clothes, church, books, life 

insurance, doctors' bills, etc 34.25 

Monthly allowance for these purposes 2.85 

All that has been said in regard to the white teachers applies 
with even greater force to the colored teachers. It is no wonder 
that good teaching does not obtain in the schools of Orange County 
when a mere pittance is the reward. 

The policy of the board of directors, recently adopted, of raising 
salaries to an average $75 monthly level will do much toward 



16 Study of Public Schools in Orange County 

correcting tliis evil. It is to be hoped that the board will not 
stop here but continue to raise salaries and lengthen the tenn 
until Orange can hold out a reasonable inducement to trained 
workers in public education. 

SUMMARY or PERSONNEL 

Without further presentation of facts or discussion of condi- 
tions it is evident that there is need of readjustment in the public 
school organization of Orange County. The duties and respon- 
sibilities of the several officers need to be more sharply defined ; 
responsibility for the performance of particular functions needs 
to be fixed; ample qualifications for holding any given position 
must be demanded and secured ; provision must be made to secure, 
develop and continue in service a trained force in the system. 
With increased demands for service must go increased rewards, 
adequate compensation. At i^resent the organization is loose, 
undifferentiated, lacking in coordination and directed effort. A 
definite plan of endeavor, a clear outlining of a purpose, an exact 
classification of function will aid in securing a more direct, more 
economical, more efficient working body. 

To this end it is suggested that the board of directors : 

1. Define exactly the functions, duties, and responsibilities 

of the several school officials in the county — including 
the teachers. 

2. Define the necessary qualifications for performing these 

functions, duties and responsibilities. 
. 3. Determine upon a definite, clear-cut, and so far as possible 
detailed policy to pursue in regard to the schools for a 
period of not less than five years, including such matters 
as, for example : 

(1) Salary schedule 

(2) Teacher training 
(3') Supervision 

(4) Instruction supplies 

(5) Building program, etc. 

4. Provide such office equipment and assistance as is neces- 
sary to organize and carry on the routine involved in a 
more close-knit county school system. 



University of !N^obth Carolina 17 

RAW MATERIAL 

The raw material in this business of public education is made 
up of boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 21, the legal school 
age. It is the stuff out of which the process of education must 
produce a finished product of intelligent and well-informed citi- 
zenry capable of attending to the best industrial, social, commer- 
cial, political interests of the State, county and local community. 
In a very real sense, therefore, it must be recognized that Orange 
County is now making the Orange County of ten, twenty, and 
thirty years hence. According as the best qualities of this raw 
mlaterial are recognized, selected and utilized the county will have 
a worthy or unworthy, a prosperous or a backward citizenry as the 
finished product. In the course of realizing on these possibilities 
there are certain conditions as concerns the raw material which 
must be fulfilled. 

It goes without saying that every possible bit of available raw 
material should be manufactiired into as fine a finished product 
as possible and with as little waste as possible. In the second 
place, if the raw material is to be manufactured successfully there 
must be a definite, known, constant supply available every day the 
process is going on. Third, the raw material must be carried on 
through the process just as far and as rapidly as the nature of 
the material will permit. In terms of public education this means 
that all children of legal school age should be enrolled in school, 
in attendance every day the school is in session and promoted regu- 
larly from year to year until their school career is ended. To be 
sure some mil have finished the public school offering before they 
are twenty-one and in actual practice we would find nowhere the 
enrollment equal to the school census. 

Let us see how near Orange County comes to meeting these con- 
ditions as to good business in handling raw material. The school 
census shows 3,639 white children and 1,954 colored children of 
legal school age ; this is, then, the available supply of raw material 
— 5,593 children. Of this number, 2,844 white children and 1,287 
colored children were enrolled in the schools in 1918-19; this is 
the actual amount of raw material on hand, 4,131 children. That 
is to say 70 per cent of the available white material and 65 per 



m 




HARN"ONY 




ST. MARY'S 




ROCK RIDGE 
SOME OF THE BEST ONE-ROOM WHITE SCHOOLS 



University of ^okth Carolina 19 

cent of tlie available colored material was on hand for actual use 
in manufacture last year. Where is the other 30 per cent? Of 
the amount of raw material on hand in 1918-19 — which, remem- 
ber, was about two-thirds of the available supply, 72 per cent of 
the white material and Q6 per cent of the colored material was 
daily supplied to the factories, i. e., about two-thirds of the amount 
of raw material on hand was daily available for the workmen. 
The systean Was manned and geared to handle 4,131 pieces of raw 
material but only 2,889 pieces Avere there to be put through the 
process. It is poor business to have so much machinery whirl- 
ing, to have it geared up to handle a given amount of raw material 
and have a partial and irregular daily supply. Moreover, in such 
a case there cannot help but be a deleterious effect upon the quality 
of finish which the raw material can receive. 

This condition is particularly noticeable when a specific school 
is studied. Take the New Bethel white school in Little River 
ToAvnship as an illustration. There are 85 children on the school 
census for that district ; 59 of them, or 69 per cent, were enrolled 
this past year ; of the 59 enrolled 34 were actually there every day 
— and, of course, not the same 34 every day either. In terms of 
the business world, then, of every ten available pieces of raw 
material four different pieces were daily present to be manu- 
factured. A similar situation obtains in a dozen or more of the 
white schools and in an equal number of the colored schools. It 
is not necessary to publish such data school for school, but the 
figures are available if needed. 

Orange County is not giving sufficient attention to the matter 
of complete and regular school attendance. When the stockhold- 
ers are standing for an operating expense to handle over 4,000 
pieces of raw material and the executives, foremen, and district 
managers allow the factories to run with less than three-fourths 
of this material daily on hand the stockholders are not receiving 
a square deal and neither is the raw material being given proper 
treatment. A business run on such a basis is bound to turn out 
a crude, rough, unfinished, inferior quality product. It cannot 
be otherwise; the laws governing such a situation are immutable. 



20 Study of Public Schools in Orange County 

Let us consider a little more in detail one of tlie effects of such 
a condition upon the raw material. Since this material is not 
regularly in the factory to receive its proper treatment it cannot 
progress with the other lots of material which are there to be put 
through the process. At the end of any given year this set of 
miaterial must be again submitted to the process which it only 
partially received the year before. In the course of time, if the 
miaterial continues to be present long enough it will have gone 
through the complete process of manufacture, but can it possibly 
be of as good quality or as well finished as the* material which has 
been handled according to the formula? 

Children who do not attend regularly and for the full time the 
schools are in session cannot possibly get the benefit from the 
schools which it is intended they shall get. The work of the 
classes must go on regularly for those who are present. It is 
inevitable that those who are absent shall lose something and a 
prolonged period of absence or many short periods of absence 
will result in the necessity for children to go back over the Avork 
again, become repeaters. 

Complete records as to this condition in Orange County are not 
available but complete and usable returns were secured from 33 
schools concerning 1,908 pupils. ISTormally one may expect to 
find around 30 to 35 per cent of children repeating their school 
work. In Orange nearly 56 per cent are repeating their work. 
Out of the 1,908 pupils whose records are available 1,058 are from 
one to ten years behind in their work; 811 are progressing at a 
normal rate — about 42 per cent; 39 pupils are going ahead faster 
than can be normally expected. Just about 5 per cent, or one in 
twenty, of the children in Orange County schools are five years 
or more behind schedule in the process of their educational finish- 
ing. N'ormally children ought to get through the elementary 
school in seven years but here are children by the scores who will 
require twelve and fifteen years to finish their school work, if they 
ever finish it. 

The last clause in the paragraph above is the real tragedy of 
this condition. Those pupils who fail to move on regularly year 
after year soon lose their courage altogether and leave school never 
to return. They go out hostile to schools, disgruntled with the 



University of North Carolina - 21 

teachers and the system, enemies and not friends of the institution 
by which alone American ideals can be propagated and made 
effective in our national life. The repeaters in public schools are 
expensive, it means an unnecessary expenditure of money to pro- 
vide teachers for those who are going over the work again and 
again, but the cost to the county of those who leave school hostile 
to it or, Avorse still, indifferent to its advantages, cannot be meas- 
ured in dollars and cents. Consider the wasted material, the 
material spoiled in manufacture, the material which has to be put 
to an ill-adapted use when it might have been made a first-class, 
best-quality product. It is recognized that other causes conspire 
to aid in producing this awful waste but it is positive that so much 
absence must be one of the very great and very potent causes tend- 
ing toward waste. 

But again and from another angle, too small an amount of the 
material ever reaches the stage of finish which the public school 
system offers. Out of the total enrollment in the public schools 
of Orange of 4,131 pupils, only 237 — about 5 per cent — are enrolled 
in high school work; 235 white and 2 colored. This is partly, 
perhaps largely, to be accounted for by the fact that only nine 
schools in the county offer any high school work. In two of the 
tOA\mships there is not one school offering work beyond the ele- 
mentary school. In point of fact there are only two schools in 
the entire county Avhich offer anything like a well-organized, full 
high school course. It can hardly be expected that such a con- 
dition will tend toward providing that equality of opportunity in 
education so essential to a democratic system of government. How 
can the raw material be made into a finished product when not 
even any opportunity is provided for the process to be carried 
beyond its elementary stages? 

Under the present placement of the schools and organization of 
the districts this condition is inevitable. Out of the fifty white 
schools, sixteen have only one teacher, twenty-two have two teach- 
ers, the remaining twelve have three or more. Of the twenty-eight 
colored schools, twenty-five are one-teacher schools, one is a two- 
teacher school, one a three-teacher school and one a four-teacher 
school — the only one even attempting to do any work of high school 
grade. Here is, probably, one of the very serious difficulties in 




EVERYBODY HAPPY 




AUL HERE, EVEN THE DOG 




A CASE WHERE SEVEN EQUALS A NINE 
RAW MATERIAL 



University of jSTorth Carolina '23 

the Orange County school business. There are too many small, 
expensive, inefficient, poorly located and poorly equipped school 
plants. The units are too small, so small as not to permit an 
effective organization of the working force or most economical 
handling of the material (pupils). A complete reorganization of 
the districts and of the school system throughout the county should 
take place before a single new building is built or a dollar spent 
for improvements on buildings now in use. 

Perhaps there is no better place than this to present a plan of 
organization which is possible, desirable and much more efficient 
than the present nonorganization and which may serve as the sug- 
gestion concerning the handling of the raw material. The plan 
involves first, dividing the public school period into four smaller 
periods of three years each. Consider grades one, two and three 
as primary ; four, five and six as grammar ; seven, eight and nine 
as intermediate; ten, eleven and twelve as high school. This last 
division might stop with the eleventh grade but the twelfth year 
is suggested as a means of making it possible for the county to 
provide teacher training within its own system. By judicious 
division, rearrangement and transportation, certain schools could 
be designated as primary with one teacher and give work in the 
first three grades only; other schools could be designated inter- 
mediate with as many teachers as necessary, four at least, giving 
nine years of work; and finally the high schools, at least one for 
each township well organized, well equipped, centrally located 
offering eleven or twelve years of school work. All the work could 
be so organized and outlined that pupils could move readily with- 
out loss of time or standing from the smaller to the larger units 
and receive the benefits of an education just as extensively as he 
or she desired. 

Concretely, this may be illustrated by using Bingham Township 
as a possibility. Sunnyside, Orange Chapel, and Maple Grove 
might be organized as primary schools giving three years of work, 
with possibly Rock Hill also. Fairview, Oaks, and Little Creek 
could be made grammar schools giving six years of work, possibly 
an intermediate school doing nine; that would depend upon con- 
ditions. The pupils in the Sunnyside and Orange Chapel dis- 



24 Study of Public Schools in Orange County 

tricts who have finished the work of the primary grades could 
readily be transported to the Fairview school there to receive 
further instruction. About midway between Oaks and White 
Cross there might be built a modern school building, the work 
organized on a nine or eleven-year basis and become the public 
school center for the whole southern end of Bingham Township. 
Transportation could be provided for such pupils from the smaller 
schools in this end of the county as needed it or a dormitory might 
be erected in connection with this high school unit. At Orange 
Grove also the work could be organized on an eleven-year basis, 
a dormitory built or transportation provided to accommodate all 
the advanced pupils in the northern end of the towmship. 

There are difficulties in the execution of such a plant but they 
are not insurmountable and the possible benefits to be derived 
would offset any temporary inconveniences. Such a plan would 
probably be fully as expensive in actual total cost as the present 
organization, i. e., the investment would be no less, yet the return 
on the investment would be much greater and much surer. With 
an equal or even a slightly advanced investment, but a surer and 
larger return, isn't it good business? 

Whether or not such a reorganization is considered or perfected 
it is certain that some sort of consolidation should be effected in 
the southern part of Bingham Township at least so far as Oak 
Grove and White Cross is concerned. In Cheek's Township, 
Chestnut Eidge and Gravelly Hill should be consolidated at 
Gravelly Hill : Rehoboth and Fairfield should be brought together 
out on a main traveled road. In Little River Township, Breeze 
and Union Grove may well be consolidated at Caldwell, while in 
Eno Township, St. Mary's and Pleasant Green could be brought 
together. In Chapel Hill Township, Clark's should be brought 
into the Chapel Hill district as well, perhaps, as Merritt's-; Piney 
Mountain and Blackwoods also cannot justify their continued 
existence as separate units. A more detailed study of the situ- 
ation would no doubt reveal other possibilities in the way of con- 
solidation for more effective and more nearly universal, more gen- 
eral and uniform results. 



University of North Carolina 25 

INVESTMENT CAPITAL 

An inventory shows that Orange County has fifty white school- 
houses and twenty-five colored schoolhouses as investment capital 
in her public school business, a schoolhouse in every white dis- 
trict with three colored districts lacking any house at all ; two of 
these districts use churches and one district lacks a place of 
business. 

These buildings have a total value of around $110,000, dis- 
tributed among the white and colored districts at $100,000 and 
$10,000, respectively. Of this total valuation one district, Chapel 
Hill, mikes up about one-third, $35,000. This estimate of value 
does not include the sites which would raise the total capital to 
more than $125,000. 

These buildings on the whole are in a fair condition. There 
are outstanding cases of good and poor buildings. The building 
for white children at Efland badly needs repair, as do the build- 
ings at Caldwell, Sartin and White Cross. The building at Mer- 
ritt's is out of date, badly in need of repair, and in every way 
unsuitable as a public school plant. The building at Carrboro is 
in very bad condition both as to interior and exterior. The Hills- 
boro building is a mere makeshift as a school plant, classes have 
to be held in rooms ill suited to school work, the lighting and heat- 
ing arrangements are most unsatisfactory, and the whole plant is 
unworthy the county-seat. It is encouraging to know that plans 
are now under way to provide more satisfactory school plants in 
these last three districts. 

The plants for the colored schools are all unsatisfactory, the 
worst conditions being found at Sunnyside, Merritt's, Cedar Grove, 
and Maple Grove. In the first two districts log houses only are 

provided. 

Mention must be made at this point of the lack of toilets for 
the schools. In district after district the report as to outhouses 
is to the effect that there are none and in the majority of cases 
such as were found were in a deplorable condition as to cleanliness 
and even worse, if such were possible, as to repair. 

The actual condition of the school plants as revealed to the eye 
of the camera is shown by the cuts in this bulletin. Among the 




CARELESSNESS IN REPAIRS 




UP-TO-DATE( 7) LIGHTING 




MODERN (7) VENTILATION 



A FEW EXAMPLES 



University of North Carolina '27 

really good buildings should be mentioned Chapel Hill, a modern, 
brick, new structure; and the buildings at St. Mary's, Harmony 
and Rock Ridge, all one-room buildings for white children. 

In making the personal visitations it was often a source of won- 
der that the buildings were ever found. It seems to be charac- 
teristic of Orange County that it locates its school buildings in 
the most out-of-the-way spots imaginable. Few of the buildings 
are on even a main traveled road and fewer still on a good sur- 
faced road. The stockholders seem to be ashamed of their bus- 
iness, afraid that folks will know they believe in schools. It is 
an unfortunate condition, too, for this gives opportunity for dep- 
redations during vacations and allows no opportunity for local 
pride to grow up and centralize around the school, the chief bus- 
iness center of every community. 

In the future the directors, stockholders and executives should 
be particularly attentive, first, to the location of buildings and, 
second, to see that they are built for school purposes. The light- 
ing, heating, ventilating, and sanitary arrangements of these 
school plants are very poor. In seven cases among the schools 
visited, for example, there was no way in which the pupils could 
be seated without looking directly toward a window; cross-light- 
ing, right-side lighting and insufficient window area were the rule 
and not the exception. It is, moreover, incumbent on Orange 
County school officials to attend to the matter of sufficient, proper, 
sanitary outhouses. The physical effect of the present condition 
is bad enough to contemplate not to mention the moral effect. The 
county has much to do to provide sufficient and proper school 
plants; it must make a larger and more nearly adequate capital 
investment in buildings and sites. 

A brief word is necessary in regard to teaching equipment. 
ISTot a single school of those visited is fully equipped with teach- 
ing apparatus and only three can be classed as having even a 
reasonable amount of such equipment. Insufficient blackboard 
area, no maps or at most a map of IS^orth Carolina, no globes or 
charts, a woefully depleted library, are characteristic of the 
schools visited. The desks are too often of the double, home-made 
and very uncomfortable type, or of the double, patent, nonadjust- 
able style. Modern, adjustable, comfortable desks and seats are 




CARRBORO 








r^J-"-. 



41 




WHITE CROSS 



SOME OF THE LARGER BUILDINGS 



The University of North Carolina 29 

exceedingly rare. It is not fair to the workmen to expect them to 
turn out a high quality product when they are not given sufficient 
or adequate working tools. Modern structures, reasonably well 
equipped with teaching apparatus and Avorking conveniences are 
a pressing need for the Orange County school business. Such 
items ought not to be considered expense, either, but should be 
looked upon as working investment, necessary to the business. 

OPERATING CAPITAL 

The total school fund for Orange County from all sources, i. e., 
the operating capital for its school business, amounts to $44,178.20 ; 
an amount available for each child of $7.89 ; just about one dollar 
less than the average amount available for each child throughout 
the State. When one realizes that twenty-five of the forty-eight 
states in the United States invest more than $25 per pupil as 
operating capital and only ten invest less than $10 per pupil, it 
takes but little thinking to see how cheaply Orange County expects 
to run its school business. 

Of this total amount, $10,650 is raised by special tax, $4,000 
of which is raised in Chapel Hill district alone, leaving $6,650 
which is raised by seven other local tax districts. 

The result is exactly what one might expect — a cheap school sys- 
tem, a cheap business, a rough, unfinished product. The workmen 
do not have sufficient or proper working tools and they themselves 
are not trained for their work. The process of manufacture is 
cheapened at every possible place and the result is inevitable. 

Yet in spite of this fact the county continues to pay its Treas- 
urer over $600 annually in fees for handling this $45,000 worth 
of school funds, enough at the present rate to provide eighty more 
children a term in school or enough to pay the salary of three 
teachers for five months, i. e., such salaries as Orange County 
pays, or to put it in another way, it is enough to run a two-teacher 
school for the year. This is an operative cost which might well 
be eliminated and has no justification as a school expense. 

Taken all together, the operating and investment capital in 
Orange County schools amounts to around $155,000. For a 
county which has made such a creditable record in purchasing 
Liberty Bonds and Thrift Stamps and which shows up so well 



30 Study of Public Schools in Orange County 

in its bank deposits it would appear that tlie stockholders in this 
school business do not have very great faith in education as an 
investment. Who is at fault ? That is the question for the direc- 
tors to determine. Some means must be found to make this school 
business an interesting proposition. If it is to be carried on suc- 
cessfully and if the product is to be such as the county will be 
proud of there must be a larger investment in operating and in 
fixed capital. Advertising will help, "boosting" will help, legal 
coercion will help, but most of all quantity as Avell as quality 
production will help. The directors have an important duty to 
perform in making this public school business into a "going bus- 
iness." It is a challenge to their business ability and acumen. 

COSTS 

Such a study as this would not bo coniplete without a discussion 
of costs in running the business. Perhaps the best way to rep- 
resent the actual cost of running this business is to express the 
proportion of each $100 which goes for any given purpose. The 
school money of Orange County is distributed as shown in the 
following table : 

Out of every one hundred dollars raised for schools in Orange 
County— 

$50.50 goes to pay salaries of white teachers 

15.60 goes to pay salaries of colored teachers 

7.30 goes to build schoolhouses and make repairs 

4.30 goes for incidental expenses of white schools 

3.60 goes to pay salary of County Superintendent 

2.10 goes to Hillsboro High School 

2.10 goes to Chapel Hill High School 

1.90 goes to pay commission of County Treasurer 

1.60 goes for incidental expenses of colored schools 

1.40 goes to supplement teachers' salaries 

1.40 goes for teachers' meetings and Reading Circle 

.80 goes to pay the demonstration agent 

.60 goes to pay per diem and traveling expenses of County 
Board of Education 



The University of N'orth Carolina 31 

.60 goes to provide school libraries 
.60 goes for expenses of County Superintendent 
.60 goes for stationery and fuel for County Super- 
intendent 
.50 goes for taking the school census 
The distrihutlon of costs is very good. The great difficulty is 
there are not enough hundred dollars to run a good business. 

The business man is always interested to know the unit cost 
of production. Figured on the annual basis it costs Orange 
County $7.89 per pupil enrolled to run its school; or $15.22 per 
pupil in daily attendance. It is costly production not to have 
the material on hand when the workmen expect it for it costs 
Orange County $7.33 every year from every pupil not in daily 
attendance. The total cost of absence from school is annually 
$9,103 for the county or almost as much as the total fund raised 
hy special tax in the entire county. Irregular attendance is costly 
and that, too, in actual dollars and cents. 

A study of per pupil costs based on the number of pupils 
enrolled and salaries paid teachers reveals a most unbusinesslike 
condition. Unit costs of production in Orange vary according to 
no fixed rule or known law. Each factory is a law unto itself, 
there is no sort of uniformity of production cost anywhere in the 
system. At White Cross it costs $6.85 per pupil for the year's 
work; at Elm Grove the cost rises to $11.16! The unit cost of 
production at Clark's is $6.86; at Sunnyside it is $7.30, nearly 
50 cents more per unit. When the figures for the local tax dis- 
tricts are taken the differences are even greater. The unit cost 
at Carrboro is $10.30 ; at Chapel Hill it is $24.26 ! 

That the average cost of providing public education should vary 
somewhat is to be expected but it is not reasonable to suppose that 
with such differences in cost it is, or can be, possible to give equal 
educational opportunity to all the school children in the county. 
A part of the remedy for this condition lies in consolidation of 
districts; another part lies in closer supervision of the manage- 
ment of the units; another part lies in securing more liberal sup- 
port of the schools by the local units. The situation calls for the 
best thought and heartiest cooperation of all concerned from stock- 
holders to workmen. 



32 



Study of Public Schools in Orange County 



CONCLUSION 

Since the suggestions to tlie school officials have been made all 
through this study it is not necessary to recapitulate them here. 
In general it may be said that the public school problem of Orange 
County needs to be attacked. The principles of good business 
nBed to be applied to every phase of the problem from the county 
organization through the class management and instruction. 
Careful, systematic, accurate, uniform records need to be made 
and kept of the financial as well as of the pupil end of the bus- 
iness. A closer, more intimate, more exact supei vision of all 
phases of the public school work must be exercised, it will not do 
to let the school affairs hang at loose ends. A definite purpose for 
the schools, the pupils, the teachers, principals, superintendent and 
school board must be clearly thought out and set forth looking 
toward a five or ten year period for accomplishment and goals set 
for shorter periods. The public school business, like any other 
business, will not run itself and those entrusted with oversight and 
to whom authority has been delegated must see to it that this most 
important business is so run as to provide equal opportunity for 
an education to all the children of all the people. 



"1 




THE BUILDING AT THE COUNTY SEAT HILLSBORO 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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022 165 726 3 



